Skip to main content

"The Forty Rules of Love" Elif Shafak - Book Review


Hello Learners,
The Day 2 of quarantine was spend in reading a wonderful by a Turkish writer Elif Shafak “The Forty Rules of Love”. Before you misinterpret it as a love story let me clear the plot and purpose.

“The Forty Rules of Love” has a parallel narrative. Both are interconnected. One tells a contemporary story of Ella whose life is filled with emptiness. She starts reading a manuscript named “Sweet Blasphemy” written by Aziz.Z.Zahara for a literary agency. The other is the story which lies in that manuscript. The story of a Sufi poet Rumi and Shamz of Tabriz, where he shares the forty rules of love and life.  The narration involves the travel of Shams through which he gets to know Rumi and how Shams imparts his knowledge.

The Forty rules embarked the spiritual journey of Rumi and also his companionship with his preacher Shamz. Here the forty rules helps Ella to find purpose of her life and fills life with happiness and meaning. She also finds a friend Aziz.Z.Zahara.

The book also talks about companionship between two people exploring the journey not necessarily of what we assume. Every companionship leads us to a new unexplored journey. Whether it’s companionship with parents, teachers, friends or even any stranger you are meeting for the first time.

The book introduces us to the mystic world of Sufism and how it is interweaves in the contemporary time. In this age of digitization, we read many quotes of Rumi. This book is perfect if you like his quotes. Also those who are fond to read philosophical books will like it.

The best thing I like about this book is that at the end of it has a page of glossary, works cited and a small interview of the writer Elif Shafak. It shows the ethical behavior of the writer and his team.
It is a very quick review of the book which I shall edit later for some detailed analysis.

Worth Reading Book!
Happy Learning!

Comments

  1. Kaushal Desai26 March 2020 at 11:32

    Quite interesting review, indeed. Have heard about this book and surely review of it, took my interest to read it like Rumi on rent is presented here.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

" Siddhartha" Hermann Hesse - Book Review

Hello Readers, The growing cases of Covid-19 and lockdown had and has been making us go through tremendous stress. The stress itself is making our world upside down, rather than the problem. At this hour it necessary to indulge ourselves in something which allows us to be at peace. An avid reader in me got the perfect time to read books apart from research and syllabus. I picked a long awaited book from my library; “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse. Gautam Buddha, his teachings and life has always fascinated me a lot. So had to grab it without fail. Let me give you all a quick review of this book. Something about the author :- Hermann Hesse is an amazing writer from Germany. He wrote many novels and essays; best known for “Siddhartha”. He won the prestigious Noble Prize for Literature in 1946. Hesse began writing Siddhartha in December 1919 in Switzerland. During his childhood, he frequently heard stories about the beauty of spirituality in Indian Culture, from his father and mot...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mountains are calling and I must go… #AcademicTour #Junagadh #2019

The Mountains are calling and I must go… Recently I had a delightful experience of visiting Junagadh for Academic tour organized by Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. Being a Research Scholar and a Faculty member, this was my first tour in a different role. It is said that a physician treats but nature heals. It is absolutely true. Stuck in health issues for so many months, and finally the mountains were calling and I had to go. I feel rejuvenate after this trip. The best part about academic tour is that you not only visit historical and important places, but you visit so many academic Institutions, meet so many learned teachers and students. This tour was planned for two days; 5 th and 6 th February. We started on 5 th early morning and were back on 6 th at night. There we visited many marvelous places and I would like to separate it as given beneath. As it is academic visit, let me start with it. Academic Institutions...
Post a Comment
Read more

"RIP"; Rest in Peace those who are Alive....

Hello Friends, After a long time I am writing here. Hope you all are fine. This time I have come up with a different interpretation of the phrase “RIP”. Mostly this phrase “RIP”; Rest in Peace is used for the people who are no more. We use this phrase to give sympathy towards the departed soul. The soul may get peace wherever it travels. No one exactly knows where the soul travels. Sometimes this phrase is used out of care and sometimes just for show off on social media. While sitting alone near a cemetery, a thought struck in my mind. Why do we use RIP only for dead people????? We can also use it for those who are alive. Many time people use RIP when a person is dead. The same people might have harassed the dead person when he is alive. So what’s the point of “RIP”? Suppose in the day time you behave very badly with someone. Is he/she going to get sound and peaceful sleep at night? The dead person will never come back so we just say “RIP”. Of course ever...
Post a Comment
Read more